The present invention generally relates to an Internet Website and more particularly to an automated process for creating an Internet based, retail outlet website.
Setting up and operating a conventional retail store involves a number of steps including: finding a location, designing the look and layout of the store; placement of merchandise; order, receive and track a changing inventory; conduct sales and manufacturer promotions; etc.
It comes as little surprise that the steps of setting up a website and operating an on-line retail store involve steps that are directly analogous. These steps involve establishing the look and feel of the site; navigation; deciding on the overall organization and structure of the website into which merchandise will be placed; creation of merchandise descriptions, price schedules, display images, etc.; conduct sales and manufacturer promotions. For example, a retail clothing website could choose to carry all types of clothing, as do conventional department stores, or it could specialize in men's clothing, or big and tall clothing, or resort wear, or formal wear, or just shirts. Websites selling hardware items could choose to cater only to the needs of woodworkers, or machinists, or woodcarvers. The website proprietor must also decide on the way the merchandise is to be organized, for example, shirts, pants, and outerwear each in a separate “department”, or all merchandise from a particular manufacturer (Perry Ellis, Ralph Lauren) together in a “boutique.” And the website proprietor must decide on the general appearance of the website—the graphic design elements, such as images, typography and layout.
Finally, having decided on the scope of merchandise, and settling on the website organization and appearance, the website proprietor must select merchandise from one or more vendors that matches the chosen merchandise profile (for example, men's resort wear, in big and tall sizes only) must then download or otherwise acquire the vendor's pricing and descriptive and marketing information for each selected item, and must use this information to create web pages with the desired organization and appearance.
At the same time, it is apparent that the retailer is investing a considerable effort to create product descriptions and the like of his inventory when most, if not all, of this information is already in machine readable form on the vendor's computer.
This process is duplicative, tedious, time-consuming, and prone to error. Even an established site will experience these difficulties when major changes are required, such as the changeover from spring to summer fashions, or adding or deleting the merchandise of a particular vendor, or of a particular type. Today's e-commerce sites, e.g. Econgo.com, BigStep.com, etc., that promote the creation of retail websites do not overcome these problems.
At the same time, many vendors are already maintaining or are planning to maintain on-line databases or computer-readable catalogs (CD-ROM, download, etc.) of product information. As used here, “vendor” denotes a manufacturer, distributor, reseller, etc. Typical information includes:                Product code, UPC code, SKU or other such identifying code;        Description, retail price, etc.        Styles, color, size, etc.;        Ordering information—price, delivery, terms, etc.; and,        Incentive Programs for the retailer and/or consumer.These databases also provide the following:        Marketing material—brochures, ad layouts, etc.;        Digital images of the items in one or more sizes and formats;        Hyperlink to an on-line catalog, promotion, etc.; and        Tags that describe the product, uses, etc.        
A convenient way for vendors to make data available is through the use of Extensible Markup Language (XML). While HTML allows the definition and specification of layout and appearance, XML allows for the definition and specification of the kind of underlying data described above, using sets of industry-specific tags. For example, XML for the apparel industry might provide a tag identifying the type of garment (“shirt”, “pants”), another identifying the color, another the size, another a reproducible image of the item, and so on. But, while use of XML provides a common language that vendors can use to describe their products and associated material, it will still be laborious for Internet retailers to use this information to construct or populate their websites. It is desirable to provide a tool that facilitates and streamlines the creation by retailers of websites through which they can market a wide range of goods and services.